July 22

American Shoals Lighthouse south of Sugarloaf Key, ca. 1910.

1890 – Thomas Ash, who was in charge of construction of the new Monroe County Courthouse, was elected city surveyor by the Key West City Commission.

1923 – Thirty men were employed in construction of the golf course on Stock Island, and engineers were contemplating hiring more to hasten the completion of the project.

1925 – Governor John W. Martin named Miss Ileen Williams as the county’s first Juvenile Judge.

1926 – The new issue of the Lighthouse Service Bulletin explained how drinking water was obtained for the light stations along the Florida Reef: Rainwater that fell on the painted lighthouse structures was caught and carried by gutters and pipes to 8,000-gallon storage tanks, a method that had been practiced for nearly 75 years.

1936 – Construction began on a new parsonage for Key West’s Fleming Street Methodist Church. Much of the lumber for the eight-room, bungalow-style building at 619 William Street had been salvaged from the previous parsonage and a building on Peacon Lane.

1981 – The Navy began dismantling the large radio towers that had stood on the Naval Station since the early part of the century.

1982 – Two men doused a passenger and the cabin of a Key West-bound Air Florida plane in Miami with gasoline, brandished cigarette lighters, and hijacked the plane to Cuba.

1985 – Jeanette T. Cooper of Key West was installed as the first female president of the Southeastern Fisheries Association.

1990 – The movie “CrissCross” starring Goldie Hawn was being filmed in Key West.

1997 – Ground was broken for the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden at Mallory Square.

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Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: American Shoals Lighthouse south of Sugarloaf Key, ca. 1910. From the Haffenreffer Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.